We wouldn't be so concerned about defense and Ream if our offense could score more in the big games. Our offense in WC22 only scored 3 goals in 4 games. Defense is not the problem, it's the offense.
You are looking at the problem from the wrong angle. At WC22 we stayed in matches because in MMA+Jedi we had world class backline protection. That backline protection is gone. MMA is no more, Adams seems to have lost 1/2 a step and Jedi may be done for good. We are going to need defenders that can defend 1v1 for much longer stretches of matches at WC26. You put a CB who can't defend (Ream) plus a DM who can't defend (Tessmann) on the field at WC2026 vs top 20 opponents and we are toast, it does not matter how well we believe they can pass the ball.
Tim Tillman in, Adams and Zawadzki out Timmy Tillman added to USMNT camp roster, USSF announces.Tyler Adams and Sean Zawadzki withdraw with injuries.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) November 10, 2025
Can Poch finally give up on Zwadaski now? Three call ups that he couldn’t make at this point. I would have preferred James Sands or Maloney or CARDOSO as replacements.
On a personal level i feel for Zawadzki who keeps getting hurt in what feels like his last chance. At the same time I've said that exact statement 3 times, so for all I know he's gonna get called in March
The McKennie and Musah no call ups are also starting to look stupid. Our starting midfield for the friendlies is likely to be Tessman and Roldan or Morris. Which is a shame and won’t prepare us for the World Cup.
i dunno man, if zwadski can just pretend to turn his ankle a couple or three more times poch will have to give him his shot at the world cup.
Those three guys are very likely to get minutes in the World Cup, and we'll probably see starts in the group stage even if we are 100% healthy. Which we won't be. So I'm not sure what you're on about not preparing at all.
Berhalter has done nothing but improve and show it on the field. The guy continues to earn opportunities.
theyre just as likely to see one start among them at best (and that one overwhelmingly being tesserman). of course thats assuming puli, weah, tillman adams and mckennie are fit cause on the same hand poch wont have his arbitrarily bullshit excuses to include our most elite ass-kissers. and that, in turn assumes poch take that one roster seriously- not at all a given imo. and just an aside, but adams is our lone two way best/biggest ass kisser lock.
If we're 100% healthy, I would think at least 2 of the 3 see minutes (Tessman and one of Roldan/Morris, who are very similar players). Agree that probably one gets a start but it could be two depending on the point situation and rotation. Which all means that yes, it's not some incredible loss that they are playing here. A large portion of the fanbase seems to think Berhalter made a massive mistake in playing MMA in all three games last time but it's a disaster we didn't call in McKennie here. As for ass-kissing, what does that even mean? Do you really think there's players here that are here because they suck up to Poch by bringing him cookies or something? Or by ass-kissing, do you mean things like "Taking practice seriously and practicing like you play" or "Doing what the coach directs?" Because holy shit, those are the basics of a winning team. I love this idea that a Joe Scally ********ing around is so talented it's clearly just Poch's ego getting in the way here and not the very basics of any winning team to practice as you play and to play as a cohesive team according to a gameplan. This team hasn't earned leeway on that point. Certainly guys like Reyna and Scally haven't.
If people want to look at the bright side, they can say quite a number of the guys not at camp are locks. Richards, Pulisic, Adams, etc. I'm worried about Antonee, but he's a lock if fit. Not as sure about McKennie and Johnny, but they probably are. There's a reason they play at Juventus and Atletico Madrid. So we continue to give opportunities to others to win spots. They either succeed or fail. I know we all thought this camp was going to be the "A" team against World Cup-caliber competition. Its not turned out that way. The staff can still gain useful information as they aim to fill out their roster, though.
Our player base cannot stay even remotely healthy and has zero track record of it. Any expectations need to be adjusted for the fact that the talent cannot be accounted for at anywhere close to 100%. Health is a skill, so to speak, and the vast majority of our players simply not do have it.
Why would Poch call in Tim Tillman? This is yet another example that Poch doesn't take these windows seriously. Gutierrez is a far superior player coming off a far superior season and you call TT? This is beyond absurd. People assured me Poch was simply tinkering back in the summer, after wasting the two pre-GC friendlies in addition to the GC, and once Sept came around he would quite clearly and obviously quit messing around and return to calling in our top players, no more experiments. Then he wasted the Sept window but said this is the last time for experiments, so his fan club believed him. Then more in Oct. And people think these end of roster experiments won't play. They always play. Puli just burned his hammy starting next to a Roldan and Sands midfield. This clown show roles on.
If Roldan starts a group stage match, we're screwed. At best he's a sub in specific situations (maybe if we're up a goal or preserving a draw).
I'm "on" about the fact that that there are at least four midfielders better than Tillman that should be in camp - Cardoso, McKennie, Musah, Sands. And maybe even Maloney.
He may well start one -- though I would put Tessman as more likely -- and I doubt we will be screwed. He played very well in his last game against a very possible group stage opponent, for example. He certainly won't be a strength, but people act like the US has ever had some kind of rock solid XI of stars across the board. Sometimes I wonder what this mythical World Cup is where we only play Top 10 teams in the Group Stage is.
What I was commenting on wasn't about Tillman; it was your comments about Tessman, Roldan, and Morris getting minutes here. All three are better fits for what we want clearly than Sands and Maloney. But hell, Tillman may be, but as I noted, he's still the fifth center mid on this roster that's generally playing two. McKennie's not here because Poch wants to make sure he keeps getting club minutes; that decision was made before Adams and Zawadski went out; I don't know why this would change now -- winning and losing this game is immaterial. Cardoso has not played a minutes since his ankle injury; I have no idea how fit he is and neither do you. Which leaves Musah. There will always be an argument for the guy, but he's not a defensive midfielder and he hasn't been playing period, much less playing well. I don't know if that's the basis for his exile, whether it's more game based -- he's never played centrally for Poch or whether his choice to skip the GC did not play well with Poch ... but like the McKennie decision ... Tillman's an injury replacement, and if you don't call Musah in the original call up for whatever reason, you probably aren't here.
clearly our most consistent trait as a pool is missing 4-6 of a hypothetical top 23 at any given time. the response to that being to focus on the bottom of position/role groups is asinine. and (the general) you just sound stupid going along with patently bullshit reasoning. leaving wes out for the reason given is stupid, and anyone whos enabling stupidity is, by definition, stupid too. these guys have one camp left, in 5 months, but wes needs to get in good with a new manager now?! no one with any sense at all takes that seriously. we called in a team that where a majority of players arent going to play a competitive match over that timeframe. and if anyone wants to comment on my posts then comment on my posts, and shove your gio/cardoso takes directly up your butt. just because you can only post in the most generalized, groupthink, lets pretend its its 1994 again way possible doesnt mean no one else can. neither one of them belongs anywhere near the national team currently (nor does musah). nor do zwadski, tt or berhalter for that matter, with roldan having the edge for "somebodys got to be the 4th cm"- who, not for nothing, poch didnt know existed until a friendly against a couple of team this board cant call "badge fc" fast enough when it comes to one of our guys actually playing there. thats why a very, very few of us have been mentioning that we dont have time for the horseshit that has been the hallmark of pochs rosters. but poch says theres plenty of time and you guys cant repeat that here fast enough. and the worst part is i know most of you arent that stupid...youre just ok doing it anyways.
Good points, except Sands and Maloney are defensive mids. At least Sands is starting in bundesliga. And if Cardoso is healthy enough to make Atletico bench, he could be in camp for evaluation.